Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Chain of Command: Arnhem Game 3

Martin and I played the last game in our short Arnhem campaign on Sunday. Wahj and fg also turned up to spectate, but I wanted to play the Germans myself for one important reason...

The scenario depicted the defence of the Oosterbeek perimeter. The British hold the far (east) end of the table, and the Germans must take the large building which served as their anchor on this flank.

The game started poorly for Martin as I rolled a '9' on the Support List, which meant he could not take a 6-pounder - and I knew that.

With 17 points to spend I took my secret weapon, a Forward Observer for a mortar battery, and an extra squad mounted on a half-track.

I planned to suppress Martin's forces with a mortar barrage and then send my secret weapon speeding down the road to attack the British, but the careless FO was shot and killed before he could call down the shots. I then deployed two squads of infantry to try to outshoot martin's forces, which have by now deployed in a defence line.

'Steady, lads!'

Frustrated by the inability to cause any significant casualty on the Paras and the smoke from their mortar, I decided to darn the torpedoes and sent my Flammpanzer down.

When it got within range, I managed to get two consecutive phases. The result was carnage.

Martin's brave PIAT troopers fired round after round at the Flammpanzer, at one point causing the driver to lose his cool and wounding the tank commander, but when both PIAT teams were killed, the Paras knew their game was up and retired.

Once again I enjoyed the game. I think it reflected how desperate the Paras' defence was, and how for the German even if the result of the whole operation was never in doubt, individual battles could still be a touch and go affair - had Martin disabled the Flammpanzer, it would have been near impossible for me to take the position without any artillery support.

This will likely be the last game of the year. We plan to play two CoC campaigns next year, but we do have some ways to go in terms of painting and terrain-making before we can kick them off.